The father of world marathon document holder Kelvin Kiptum has known as on the Kenyan authorities to analyze his son’s demise – saying 4 folks got here “looking for” the athlete days earlier than he died.
The demise of the 24-year-old, who received the London Marathon final yr, was introduced by Kenya’s former prime minister, Raila Odinga, on Sunday.
The athlete’s coach, Gervais Hakizimana, additionally died when a automotive the pair had been travelling in crashed on a street between two cities in western Kenya.
Devastated by the demise of his solely son, Kiptum’s father, Samson Cheruiyot, has appealed to the federal government to conduct an investigation, saying unknown folks had been in search of his son days earlier than the deadly collision.
“There are people who came home a while back who were looking for Kiptum but they refused to identify themselves,” he instructed Kenyan information outlet Citizen TV.
“I asked them to provide identification, but they opted to leave. It was a group of four people.”
Mr Cheruiyot mentioned he had final spoken to his son on Saturday, when he says the athlete reassured him he was going to win extra medals – and that he would turn into the primary particular person to run an official marathon in lower than two hours.
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“He told me someone will come and help us build a house. He said that his body is now fit, and he can now run for 1:59,” Mr Cheruiyot mentioned.
“Kiptum was my only child. He has left me, his mom, and his kids. I have no other child. His mom was sick for a while. Right now, I’m deeply saddened.”
It comes as Kenyan police mentioned the runner died because of a visitors accident.
The drive mentioned the entrance a part of the Toyota Premio automotive concerned within the crash was intact and that the airbags didn’t deploy.
“The sensor of the airbag normally is at the front, and if there was no impact on the front part of the vehicle, the airbags will not move,” Abdullahi Dahir, Keiyo South police commander, mentioned.
“The impact (on Kiptum’s car) was on the roof… on the top of the car… so that’s why we could not see the airbags out.”
Kiptum achieved the world document for the quickest ever marathon in Chicago in October – crushing the earlier mark by 34 seconds with a time of two hours and 35 seconds
Source: information.sky.com”